STATEMENT

to the

ANGLO-AMERICAN COMMITTEE OF INQUIRY

Washington, D. C.

by

HADASSAH

THE WOMEN'S ZIONIST ORGANIZATION OF AMERICA, Inc.

JANUARY, 1946 /96 ?J?

American :•:•• ; n ConuniUe• LISS.SASY CONTENTS PAGE

PURPOSE OF HADASSAH'S WORK 1

EARLY HEALTH SERVICES 3

AMERICAN ZIONIST MEDICAL UNIT 3

EXPANSION OP SERVICES 6

GROWING COMMUNITY RESPONSIBILITY 7

MEDICAL AND PUBLIC HEALTH PROGRAM 7 Record Since 1918 7 The Rothschild-Hadassah-University Hospital 9 Home Medical Service and Convalescent Care 10 Service to Armed Forces 10 Supplies to Palestine 12

VPOST-WAR PROGRAM 12 Service to Immigrants 12 Tuberculosis Control 13 Malaria Control 14 Undergraduate Medical School 15 Occupational Therapy 16

CHILD WELFARE 16 Infant Welfare Stations 17 School Hygiene 19 School Luncheons and Nutrition Education 19 Recreation Program 20

VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 22

YOUTH ALIYAH 25

THE JEWISH NATIONAL FUND 29

JUNIOR HADASSAH 30

CONCLUSION 30 PURPOSE OF HADASSAH'S WORK

HAD ASS AH is the Women's Zionist Organization of America. It was organized in 1912 by the late Henrietta Szold, Baltimore-born social worker, educator and Jewish scholar, one of the pioneers of the Zion- ist movement in the United States. It now numbers 162,000 senior members, and 18,000 members in its youth affiliate, Junior Hadassah, making a total of 180,000. Hadas- sah's more than 800 chapters, groups, divisions, and Junior Hadassah's units, are to be found in 47 states. It is the largest Jewish women's organization in this country. Hadassah began its work in Palestine in 1913, on the basis of a program outlined by Miss Szold after her return from the Holy Land which she visited in 1909 so that she might see for herself how the remnant of Jews who had never left their ancient homeland, and others who had come recently as settlers, fared. In Palestime, Miss Szold found a population of some 50,000 Jews, 600,000 Arabs, and a small community of Christians and others living in abysmal ignorance, beset by superstition, ravaged by trachoma, malaria, dysentery, and skin infections indigenous to the Middle East, periodically the prey of recurrent epidemics which afflicted men, women and children of all races and creeds alike. When organized, Hadassah took as its motto this quotation from Jeremiah: "The healing of my people." Its purpose as defined by the twelve New York women who were its founders, was "to foster Zionist ideals through education in America, and to begin public health work and the training of nurses in Palestine." From its inception Hadassah subscribed to the platform adopted by the first Zionist Congress in Basle in 1897: "Zionism aims to create a publicly assured, legally secured home for the Jewish people in. Palestine." Every member on joining Hadassah subscribes to this platform. In the intervening thirty-four years, Hadassah has become a lead- ing health agency in Palestine. It has set standards and through its own example helped define the path of progress for other Palestinian organizations and institutions engaged in the fields of curative and preventive health work, child welfare, recreation, vocational education and youth refugee rehabilitation. If Hadassah has been enabled to act as a pace-setter and standard- bearer in all these fields in Palestine, it is chiefly because of the iron- clad belief of its leaders, members and friends, that the work in which they are engaged is part of the "publicly assured" effort to recreate Palestine as the Jewish National Home.

All Hadassah members believe:

1) That the Jews are in Palestine "as of right and not on suffer- ance".

2) That international guarantees given to the Jewish people in the Balfour Declaration and the Mandate are honorable covenants on the basis of which the contributions made by Hadassah, and by all other Zionists toward the upbuilding of Palestine become sound investments, a foundation for its ever-growing expansion and development into the Jewish Commonwealth.

3) That they can remain secure in their endeavors, because to- gether with 52 other nations, the United States government has given its sanction to the British Mandate over Palestine.

4) That their work and the work of other Zionists in the fields of hospitalization, public health, school luncheons and hygiene, infant welfare, recreation, vocational education, youth refugee rehabilitation and land reclamation will help realize the age-old dream of the Jewish people that Palestine shall live again as the Jewish National Home.

Hadassah's institutions have always been open to all the peoples of Palestine. Hadassah's work has served to bring heightened stand- ards to the country as a whole. This has been achieved by direct and indirect means. Directly, this has been achieved through services given in Hadas- sah's hospitals, welfare stations, playgrounds, etc., and through the gladly offered and accepted advices and assistance of Hadassah experts to the Government Health Department which is concerned mainly with service for Arabs. Indirectly, this has been achieved by setting standards which are permeating steadily, by example, into all Palestinian communities and

2 inevitably also into the Arab communities in surrounding Middle w this came about a survey of the־Eastern lands. To understand ho history and development of Hadassah's work in Palestine is in order.

EARLY HEALTH SERVICES

With the financial aid of the American Jewish philanthropist, the late Mr. Nathan Straus, Hadassah sent two American trained nurses to Palestine in 1913. The nurses opened small quarters in the Old City of Jerusalem for maternity care and treatment of the eye scourge, trachoma. Their work was the first American scientific care introduced into Palestine, then still under Turkish rule. So many Arab and Jewish patients sought treatment that the nurses had to train a steadily in- creasing number of native girls as assistants. Then came World War I, and a threatened stoppage of activity. The need for expanded services of an emergency nature soon became pressing.

AMERICAN ZIONIST MEDICAL UNIT

In June, 1916, the governing body of the World Zionist Organization cabled a plea to American Zionists to send doctors, nurses and medical supplies. Hadassah, whose modest health program in Palestine was making slow but steady progress, was the logical instrumentality for the task at hand. The young organization, consisting then of only 2,000 members, undertook to assemble and transport a complete medical unit to Palestine. With the sympathetic and active aid of the United States State Department, permission was finally obtained from the British and French Governments for the passage of the hospital ship through the strict blockade, and from the Turkish Government for its landing in Palestine. In the meantime, on November 2, 1917, Lord Balfour declared: "His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country."

3 The Balfour Declaration had an electric effect. The age-old hope of the Jewish people became the avowed policy of a great Power. The upsurge of Zionist sentiment was manifest throughout the United States. The work of completing the medical unit was facilitated by generous response to Hadassah's public appeal for funds, and more than one hundred American doctors applied for places with the unit. Of the $500,000 required for the first year's maintenance, half was contributed by Hadassah and the Zionist Organization of America and the other half by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. The American Zionist Medical Unit sailed from New York on June 12, 1918, with a staff of forty-four, comprised of physicians, dentists, sanitary engineers and nurses. The unit's cargo contained every needed item for a fifty-bed hospital, six automobiles, two ambulances, two trucks, clothing, and other supplies—in all, 400 tons. Part of the journey was routed over land to avoid the dangers of submarine-infested waters. In Paris, Baron Edmond de Rothschild offered the unit the Kothschild Hospital in Jerusalem. The Americans landed in Alexandria, Egypt, on August 11. Several nurses remained in that city to care for Jewish refugees from war-torn Palestine, while the rest of the unit proceeded to Jerusalem. Poverty, filth, wretched housing, enormous inflation, epidemics, an excessively high death rate and lack of doctors and drugs, were the conditions that met the unit in Palestine. Almost immediately upon its arrival, an SOS call came from Tiberias, where cholera had broken out among civilians and troops. Part of the unit with supplies was dispatched to that city. After three months of arduous work the unit succeeded in controlling the epidemic. That was the last cholera outbreak in Pales- tine. The unit established a permanent hospital in Tiberias and put a resident staff in charge. The part of the unit that remained in Jerusalem set to work. The Kothschild Hospital, evacuated by the Turks, was made ready, and so great was the demand on its fifty-beds that the bed capacity had to be more than doubled almost immediately. This became the central kospi- tal of the Hadassah system. A nurses' training school was opened in connection with the hospital, and of the 400 applicants who sought admission, thirty-five were selected as qualified to enter. It was the first institution to offer professional training for women in Palestine and remained the only nurses' school for many years, a model for those that followed.

4 The first director of the medical unit was the late Dr. I. M. Rubinow, an American physician of wide training and experience, who in spite of indescribable difficulties, established high American standards and meth- ods in all the activities of the unit. By 1921 the Director was able to report that the following program of work was in operation:

1. Sanitation 2. Four hospitals with dispensaries and dental clinics a. Jerusalem, 120 beds b. Jaffa, 45 beds—closed in 1921 and replaced the same year with a 75-bed hospital in Tel Aviv c. Safad, 50 beds—building made available by the Roths- child family d. Tiberias, 18 beds Note: Haifa Hospital, 45 beds, was opened a few months later (May, 1922) 3. Nurses' training school 4. Laboratories for hospitals and infant welfare work 5. Visiting nursing service 6. Home obstetric service 7. Rural medical service 8. Health service to immigrants 9. Anti-malaria compaign 10. School hygiene 11. Anti-trachoma prophylactic treatment 12. Mother and child care

The medical unit, which up to 1921 was designed to meet urgent immediate needs, was converted into a permanent institution and its name changed to the Hadassah Medical Organization. Henrietta Szold remarked of the unit: "What began as a rather simple undertaking has become a real Department of Health." While Hadassah was aware that the many activities established by the unit were normally governmental functions, it accepted the heavy burden

5 of their maintenance in order to facilitate Jewish immigration into Palestine and the upbuilding of the Jewish National Home on the high- est health level. The expansion of the medical work as well as all other Jewish endeavors in Palestine had been given enormous impetus by the San Eemo Conference in April, 1920, when the Palestine Mandate was en- trusted to Great Britain by the Supreme Council of the Allied and Associated Powers for the purpose of putting the Balfour Declaration into effect. The subsequent approval of the Mandate by fifty-two coun- tries, members of the League of Nations, and by the United States Government in a special treaty with Great Britain in 1924, spurred a wave of immigration to Palestine. Based on the assurance of the Bal- four Declaration and the Mandate, Jews all over the world poured their substance and energy into the development of Palestine, bringing twentieth century industrialization, scientific agriculture, a modern system of education and scientific medicine into a country neglected for centuries. EXPANSION OF SERVICES In line with its purpose to help the development of Palestine as the Jewish National Home, Hadassah steadily assumed added responsibili- ties. Thus while the expanding medical and health services remained Hadassah's major undertaking, the organization branched out into other fields as the need for its efforts became manifest. Today its program in Palestine embraces the following main projects:

1. Medical and public health institutions and services patterned on the best American standards and open to all elements of the population without distinction as to race or creed. 2. Child Welfare. 3. Vocational education. 4. Youth Aliyah—rehabilitation of Jewish child refugees trans- ferred to Palestine. 5. Participation in the land purchase and reforestation program of the Jewish National Fund.

For all of its projects in Palestine, Hadassah has collected and transmitted to Palestine !20,000,000 since 1922. The funds are raised

6 through the year-round activities of the Hadassah chapters and by individual contributions. The American public's response to Hadassah's appeals has increased from year to year. As the tide of immigration into Palestine mounted, particularly in the 1930's as a result of oppres- sion in Europe, Hadassah's institutions and services were prepared to meet the growing needs.

GROWING COMMUNITY RESPONSIBILITY It is significant that almost from the inception of the Hadassah medical and health program in Palestine, the Jewish community indi- cated its eagerness to maintain and develop the various institutions and services. Aware that community health is a community responsibility, organized local bodies have from time to time arranged to take over a number of projects and organized others themselves. Thus Hadassah has in the main been the pioneer, the innovator of public health services of high American standards, setting the pace for a community that regarded health, work as an integral part of the upbuilding program of the Jewish National Home. Of the five hospitals originally established by Hadassah, three—in Tel Aviv, Haifa and Tiberias—have been taken over by local bodies. Hadassah continued to subsidize the Tel Aviv and Haifa hospitals for five years and is still subsidizing the Tiberias institution. The Kupat Holim Amamith (Rural Sick Benefit Fund), which Hadassah organized in 1931, has assumed responsibility, with Hadassah's aid, for rural medical services. The Jewish community has been giving increasing support to many other projects initiated by Hadassah.

MEDICAL AND PUBLIC HEALTH PROGRAM

The Record Since 1918 Hadassah's pioneering work from 1918 to 1921 was the foundation of a great modern enterprise in the application of medical science and medical social service in a country that scarcely had been touched by the medical progress of the Western world. The Hadassah program became the model followed by other Jewish agencies, and in some fields by the Palestine Government and Arab communities in Palestine. It has been in a large measure responsible for raising the general health level of the Palestine populace, Jews and Arabs alike; sharply reducing infant mortality, and controlling malaria,

7 trachoma, typhus, typhoid and dysentery, diseases endemic to the sub- tropical climate of the Middle East. Since 1918 more than two million persons have attended Hadassah clinics. Three hundred thousand patients have been treated in the hospitals established by Hadassah. Since 1923, 300,000 registrations of mothers and infants have been recorded in the Hadassah health welfare centers. The death rate among Jewish infants lias been cut from 144.3 per 1,000 live births in 1922 to 36 in 1944, a phenomenal reduction of seventy-five percent. During the same period sharp reductions were also recorded for infant mortality among Moslems and Christians (see Table, page 18). Trachoma, which afflicted 60 of every 100 children in Jewish schools in 1918, was at 2.6 percent in 1944, while skin diseases have been almost entirely eliminated. The unremitting effort to eradicate disease has turned Palestine within the span of a single generation into the most healthful area in the eastern Mediterranean region. Palestine today is a demonstration center for modern medical science in the whole of the Middle East. To the high standards of health service, no less than to the economic advancement of Palestine, is due the increased Arab immigration to the country since the Jewish upbuilding program began. Noting this factor, Mr. Malcolm MacDonald said in the House of Commons in 1938 when he was Secretary of State for the Colonies: "The Arabs cannot say that the Jews are driving them out of their country. If not a single Jew had come to Palestine after 1918, I believe the Arab population today would still have been round about the 600,000 figure (instead of over 1,000,000 as at present), at which it has been stable under the Turkish rule. It is because the Jews who have come to Palestine bring modern health services and other advantages that Arab men and women who would have been dead are alive today, that Arab children who would never have drawn breath have been born and grow strong."

Of the benefits of the Hadassah medical work to Arabs as well as Jews, the Palestine Royal Commission Report of July, 1937, stated i1 "Though naturally the Jewish population benefit most, the Hadassah medical services were available to all the com-

1. page 312. 8 munities in Palestine and many of the poorer classes amongst the Arabs received much assistance from the work of the organization. This disinterested philanthropy of Hadassah deserves recognition."

Since the infant mortality rate is generally regarded as an index to the health conditions of a country, it is instructive to note that the rate in Trans-Jordan for 1938 was 181, while for the same year the Moslem infant death rate in Palestine was 127.61.2

THE ROTHSCHILD-HAD ASSAH-UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL

The transfer of established institutions to the community enabled Hadassah to expand its preventive program and to extend its activities into broader fields of service. In 1936 Hadassah and the Hebrew Uni- versity entered into an agreement to develop a program of medical teaching and research, a project envisioned by Miss Szold almost from the beginning of Hadassah's activities in Palestine. The result was the Hadassah-University Medical Center on Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem, which was opened in May 1939. The Rothschild-Hadassah-University Hospital is the largest unit of the medical center, replacing the old Rothschild Hospital in Jeru- salem. It is a large, modern stone structure, spacious and light, con- taining 340 beds, with fully equipped laboratories, and staffed by leading scientists and physicians, including a number from Germany and other European countries formerly controlled by the Nazis. The other units of the medical center are the Henrietta Szold-Hadassah School of Nursing, and the Nathan Ratnoff Building for post-graduate medical teaching and research. The hospital contains the following twenty-one departments, insti- tutes and laboratories:

Department of Internal Medicine Dental Clinic Neurological Department Institute of Pathological Anatomy Surgical Department and Histology Pediatric Department X-Ray Institute

2. TB MED 126, War Department Technical Bulletin, Medical and Sanitary Data on Palestine and Trans-Jordan, Washington, D. C., Table XV, page 35.

9 Gynecological Department Bacteriological and Serological Obstetrical Department Laboratory Ophthalmological Department Laboratory of Chemistry and Department of Dermatology and Physiology Venereal Diseases Metabolism Laboratory Radium Department and Dietetic Department Institute Pharmacy Oto-rhino-laryngological Depart- Hospital Social Service Depart- ment ment Institute of Physiotherapy Occupational Therapy Depart- ment

In addition, a complete network of correlary out-patient clinics called the Brandeis Out-Patient Department, is connected with the hospital. Patients: Patients from all sections of the Palestine population— Jews, Moslems and Christians—are treated at the hospital. In recent years an increasing number have come from other Middle East countries, seeking particularly the services of the well-equipped radiology depart- ment. The hospital's average bed occupancy during 1943 was 94.2 per- cent. Seventy-five percent of the Jewish infants of Jerusalem are born in this hospital. Patients' fees are determined by a tariff set according to ability to pay. During 1943 the hospital discharged 8,357 patients.

Home Medical Service and Convalescent Care

Hadassah has established and developed a Home Medical Service, which provides medical examinations and treatment of needy patients״ in their homes, arranges for hospitalization of the more serious cases, and in instances of need distributes drugs at minimal fees, milk and other food. Hadassah has also established the Nettie Lasker Convales- cent Day Home for follow-up care of patients. Both the Home Medical Service and the convalescent home are under the supervision of the Hospital Social Service Department.

Service to Armed Forces

Opened four months before the outbreak of the war, the hospital was ready to serve the Allied military medical corps in the Middle

10 East. Hadassah's offer of cooperation was eagerly accepted. When the United States entered the war, the U. S. Government through the War Department accepted a similar offer. The Medical Center facilities were used by the Allied medical corps in many ways:

1. Monthly conferences for military doctors were held in the hos- pital. Lectures on tropical and endemic diseases were followed by clinical demonstrations. The conferences were attended by members of the American, British, Australian, Indian, Free French, Yugoslavian, Czechoslovakian and Polish medical corps. The average attendance was 150.

2. Army doctors participated in clinical rounds at the hospital.

3. Army surgeons observed operations on cases of special interest to them.

4. Special weekly consultations were held by the dermatological department on cases of skin disease in military hospitals. The patients were brought to the Hadassah hospital for consultation.

5. Members of the military force made use of the diagnostic, therapeutic and laboratory facilities of the hospital, particularly the X-Ray and radium departments.

6. The University and Hadassah Hospital supplied urgently needed medical instruments and drugs to military hospitals and labora- tories.

7. To military physicians the findings of the Hebrew University- Hadassah Typhus Laboratory and a laboratory producing tissue ex- tract for wound healing were made available, and anti-typlius vaccine and wound healing extract were supplied for both civilian and army use. Quantities of anti-typhus vaccine were supplied to the Palestine Health Department, the Y League (for aid to Russia), the Czechoslovak Mili- tary Mission and the Anglo-Iranian Petroleum Company in Iran. Special lectures on typhus were given to military physicians. Members of the American Typhus Commission, established by the late Presi- dent Roosevelt, visited the typhus laboratory and studied the research carried on there to aid in the control of typhus among American troops. 11 SUPPLIES TO PALESTINE

Since 1916 Hadassah has shipped from America large quantities of wearing apparel and hospital linens and garments to its own medical and welfare institutions and to hundreds of others in Palestine. During the war and since, the shipments included medical implements, drugs, food and other supplies which were normally procured from European sources. Recognized as an urgent war and post-war emergency service, the supplies to Palestine were given free shipping space by tlie British War Relief Society. UNRRA still allocates merchandise that is scarce on the market; the Federal Economic Administration has been generous in granting export licenses. From October 1944 to September 1945, Hadassah sent almost twice as much as in the previous year for food, drugs, clothing, hospital and other supplies. Because of the acute shortage of linens and textiles in Palestine, Hadassah has supplied clothing, yard goods and bed linen for Youth Aliyah children, the consignment reaching Palestine just in time to equip new arrivals from the concentration camps of Buchenwald and Bergen-Belsen. An urgent call from Palestine for penicillin resulted in the shipment of forty million units of penicillin sodium and penicillin calcium, released through the President's War Relief Control Board. It was flown to Palestine in a United States Government plane.

THE POST-WAR PROGRAM

Even while expanding its services during the war to meet emergency conditions and to provide care for new settlers, Hadassah planned and developed a program for the post-war period in anticipation of greatly enlarged immigration into Palestine. A bequest to Hadassah of $80,000 by the late Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis, was the foundation of a growing post-war reconstruction fund that will be used for a broad program of service to aid in the rehabilitation of immigrants, and safeguard the health of the entire population.

Service to Immigrants

In cooperation with the Jewish Agency and the Vaad Leumi (Jewish National Council), Hadassah provides public health nurses for

12 refugee camps to supervise health conditions and enforce proper stan- dards of sanitation and hygiene. Hadassah gives free care at the Rothschild-Hadassah-University Hospital to refugees who require hos- pitalization during their first six months in Palestine. The recent release of 1,320 internees from the island of Mauritius offers an example of the kind of cooperation Hadassah is equipped and ready to give to immigrants. Several Hadassah physicians and nurses were included in a medical unit sent to the island by the Government to organize health services for those who were to proceed to Palestine. Hadassah also furnished essential drugs, instruments and food for the refugee children and arranged hospitalization for the sick immediately upon their arrival in Palestine. Besides the specific health services to immigrants on their arrival and during their early months of adjustment, the whole of the health environment developed in Palestine for three decades aids the rapid rehabilitation of newcomers, particularly those who have suffered from years of oppression in Europe.

Tuberculosis Control

Inadequate facilities for the treatment of tuberculous patients is one of the major health problems in Palestine. The Government and public of Palestine, as everywhere in the world, recognize the urgency of comprehensive measures to check tuberculosis, which particularly during the war has spread alarmingly in many areas of the globe. In Palestine Hadassah is cooperating with the Anti-Tuberculosis League and the Vaad Leumi Health Department, the Government and other interested groups in a determined effort to control the disease. Three concrete measures are planned:

1. The erection by Hadassah of a 200-bed tuberculosis hospital to provide specialized medical care for complicated cases, train medical and nursing personnel, and provide facilities for research. Hadassah's Safad Hospital was for years the only hospital for tuberculous patients in Palestine. The Hadassah organization in America has already raised $750,000 for the building of the new hospital and hopes to begin construction on Mt. Scopus, as soon as possible, the hospital to be an added unit of the Hadassah-University Medical Center.

13 _ 2. The introduction of a case-finding program by mass radiog- raphy, so successful in the early detection of tuberculosis. For this purpose Hadassah is sending four modern mobile X-Ray units. Manned by trained technicians, these units will be used in a countrywide, sys- tematic screening of the local population and incoming refugees, in an effort to locate incipient cases and to control the disease.

3. Urging upon the Government Health Department and other local bodies and offering Hadassah's cooperation to conduct an exten- sive campaign of education in the prevention of tuberculosis and the care and rehabilitation of the tuberculous.

In addition to these measures, the Anti-Tuberculosis League will construct a 200-bed hospital for long-term and chronic cases, and it is hoped the Government will erect a tuberculosis institution of 300 or 400 beds, so as to meet the minimum needs of the country.

Malaria Control

As in World War I, when it had been a pioneer in the field, Hadassah again undertook responsibility for malaria work in 1940 in conjunction with the Vaad Leumi (Jewish National Council). Hadassah gives an annual subsidy for intensifying the malaria control services in Palestine, particularly in newly-established colonies which lack such services. The training of malariologists is another aspect of this pro- gram. To speed the work of malaria control, Hadassah recently sent from America ten and a half tons of DDT powder. The success of the intensified control efforts is indicated in a re- port in 1943 by Professor I. J. Kligler, director of the Department of Hygiene of the Hebrew University, who until his death last year was in charge of the anti-malaria work. He said:

"It is a source of satisfaction that our control work has benefitted the forces stationed in Palestine. The contrast between malaria in- cidence among the troops stationed in Palestine during the last war, or among those now stationed in Syria, with that among the forces at present in Palestine, is so striking that no comment is required. Twenty years of malaria control have rendered Palestine the only country in this

14 part of the world in which this infectious disease is of minor sig- nificance as a factor in troop morbidity."

Because of the effective control of malaria and the general health- ful conditions of Palestine, American and other Allied troops in large numbers spent their furloughs in that country and an American military rest camp was established there.

Undergraduate Medical School

The crowning effort of Hadassah's thirty years of medical and health work in the upbuilding of the Jewish National Home will be the establishment of an undergraduate medical school, the first in Palestine. Thus to the curative and preventive program and post- graduate medical teaching and research will now be added undergrad- uate medical teaching, so that Palestine may train its own physicians. The establishment of the medical school is a joint undertaking of Hadassah and the Hebrew University for which a campaign to raise $4,000,000 is now under way in the United States. Three new buildings will be erected close to the Rothschild-Hadas- sah-University Hospital. They will be an Institute of Physiology, Bio- chemistry and Pharmacology; an Institute for Anatomy and Pathology, and a Library and Administration Building. In order to meet the academic needs of the proposed school, the following program of ex- pansion of existing facilities is planned:

1. The Hebrew University's science laboratories will be expanded for pre-medical teaching.

2. One hundred beds will be added to the Rothschild-Hadassah- University Hospital, to bring its bed strength to 440, the number re- quired for clinical training. Fifty of these beds will be in. a new de- partment of neuro-psychiatry.

3. The Henrietta Szold-Hadassah School of Nursing will be en- larged to increase the student body from 80 to 180.

4. An out-patient department will be built near the hospital to replace the old one now in the city of Jerusalem.

15 Scientists and physicians of some of America's leading universities and hospitals who comprise the Medical Reference Board of Hadassah and the Hebrew University, have given years of careful study to the planning of the medical school. The high, standards they have set will establish the institution on the academic level of the best medical schools in the United States. The school, which will be called the Hebrew University-Hadassali Medical School, will be modern, with fully equipped laboratories, open to qualified students of every race and creed. For its faculty outstand- ing men are already being chosen in America, England, Palestine and elsewhere, to join the eminent research scientists and doctors now at the University and medical center. Young Palestinian physicians of promise will be brought to American institutions for supplementary training as teachers. The school will be in close touch with progressive institutions in the United States and Europe.

Occupational Therapy

Occupational therapy, which has been recognized by American medical authorities as an important aid to the recovery and well-being of the sick, will soon be instituted in Palestine as part of the Hadassah program. Three therapists are being trained in the United States through scholarships provided by Hadassah. The trainees are scheduled to leave for Palestine at six-month intervals, and will initiate occupa- tional therapy units in the Rothschild-Hadassah-University Hospital, the Safad Hospital, also a Hadassah institution; the Mekor Haim Tuber- culosis Sanitarium, and ultimately in the new Hadassah tuberculosis hospital in Jerusalem. This service for the sick and disabled is a step toward a rehabilita- tion program which is an urgent need in Palestine as elsewhere in the world.

CHILD WELFARE

Recognizing that the care of the child is the essential basis for a healthy and energetic population, Hadassah, from the very inception of its work in Palestine in 1913, has paid the closest attention to child welfare. The projects of this program are fundamental to the entire preventive medical work carried on by Hadassah.

16 The program encompasses four spheres of activity:

1. Infant health care

2. School hygiene and anti-trachoma service

3. School luncheons and the teaching of nutrition

4. Supervised recreation

These services give the child exceptional advantages for the develop- ment of sound physical health, aptitudes and skills, so that he may become a well-rounded personality and a useful member of the com- munity.

Infant Welfare Stations

work in Palestine is more״ No chapter in the record of constructive striking than that of the Hadassah infant welfare service. The pre- natal and post-natal care of mothers and the health supervision of in- fants and pre-school children have resulted, in over two decades, in steadily improved child health, a sharp reduction in infant mortality and a general understanding of the importance of hygienic care to prevent illness. The growth and influence of the Hadassah infant welfare work may be seen from the following facts:

1. 50 Stations Throughout the Country. The first station was opened in Jerusalem in 1921; today there are 50 in various parts of the country, as compared with 28 before the war.

2. 25,000 Attend Stations. In 1944 the number of mothers, infants and pre-school children registered at the stations was close to 25,000. In Jerusalem alone 85 percent of the Jewish infants were brought to the stations.

3. Follow-up Care. The follow-up care of mother and child by trained Hadassah nurses who visit the homes increases from year to year.

4. Jewish Infant Deaths Cut Seventy-Five Percent. The 1944 Jewish infant mortality rate of 36 per 1,000 live births is one of the

17 lowest in the world and represents a cut of seventy-five percent in twenty- two years.

5. Improved Health of Arab Children. Hadassah's pioneering work in the field of child welfare has gradually awakened Arab mothers to an understanding of the need of proper child care and they are availing themselves gradually of the services offered at the Hadassah stations. In addition, Hadassah has opened three stations in Arab districts. Fol- lowing Hadassah's example, the Health Department of the Palestine Government opened its first infant welfare station in 1925 and sent its nurses to be trained at the Hadassah centers. This Government station and others established since are in predominantly Arab sections. The steadily lower infant mortality rate among all sections of Pal- estine's population may be seen from the following table:

INFANT MORTALITY IN PALESTINE Jews Moslems Christians Total 1922 144.3 163. 129.8 157. 1923 125.76 199.31 134.84 184.77 1924 105.71 198.98 151.91 184.84 1925 131.25 200.49 162.41 188.65 1926 108.13 172.49 158.02 163,03 1927 115.40 216.80 187.23 200.47 1928 96.84 203.49 157.31 186.12 1929 89.78 204.97 155.80 186.52 1930 69. 169.56 134.43 154.29 1931 81.60 187.52 133.53 170.09 1932 85.77 164.44 141.38 153.17 1933 80.32 156.83 128.54 144.43 1934 78.13 175.15 152.39 157.58 1935 64.15 148.10 125.81 131.48 1936 68.85 136.17 113.72 121.58 1937 57.20 179.31 127.34 152.84 1938 58.51 127.61 103.98 112.05 1939 54. 121.50 100.56 107.45 1940 59.07 147.14 107. 127.22 1941 55.6 131.7 86.9 116.9 1942 57.96 140.28 106.43 122.38 1943 44.14 113.08 82.37 96.41 1944 36.13 102.94 74.36 87.15 18 SCHOOL HYGIENE

The Hadassah School Hygiene Department, established in 1919, gives medical examinations and follow-up care to 80,000 children in Jewish schools.

1. Fight Against Trachoma. When Hadassah's first district nurses began their work in Jerusalem in 1913 they found as many as 80 out of 100 pupils afflicted with trachoma in some schools. In 1918, 40 percent of the Jewish school children suffered from the scourge. By 1944 the incidence had dropped to 2.6 percent.

2. Visits by Nurses. A child who is absent from school more than two days is visited by a school hygiene nurse. Close contact is maintained with the children's families through periodic home visits and through popular lectures in the schools and health centers. Eighty percent of the parents are reached through visits and instruction.

3. Mental Hygiene. The School Hygiene's Department of Mental Hygiene is concerned with the readjustment of emotionally unstable children or those who present behavior problems. Recognizing the high standards of the Hadassah child guidance clinics, the Jaw courts of the Palestine Government send all Jewish juvenile delinquents to the clinics for examination and guidance.

4. Care at Clinics and Health Centers. Children who need medical treatment are sent to the school clinics, and those who require dental care or corrective exercises are sent to the Nathan and Lina Straus Health Center of Hadassah in Jerusalem or a similar center in Tel Aviv. (The center in. Tel Aviv established by Hadassah, has been turned over to the Tel Aviv community). These centers include departments of health education, dental hygiene, nutrition, physical education, adult health education, child adjustment and correction of speech defects.

SCHOOL LUNCHEONS AND NUTRITION EDUCATION

Begun in 1923 as an experiment in "model school lunches" to show how the school could improve the diet of the children, the Hadassah child feeding program is today a significant factor in preventing under- nourishment and deficiency diseases and thus raising the health stand- ards of the community at large. 19 Coming from any parts of the world, the settlers in Palestine must become acquainted with foods different from those to which they were accustomed, and must learn how best to use them for their highest nutritive value. Through classroom studies in nutrition and the practi- cal work of planning, cooking and serving adequate meals, the children learn food values, the relation of diet to health and methods of efficient housekeeping. The knowledge and competence they thus acquire are transferred to the home and community. The Hadassah school feeding program, with its broad aspects of nutrition education, has been recognized as of prime importance by the Government and community. The Jewish community has taken an in- creasing share in extending the program and now provides 60 percent of the cost. The Palestine Government supports it to the extent of 24 percent, while Hadassah pays the remaining 16 percent. Following Hadassah's example, and with the aid of Hadassah experts, the Govern- ment has instituted a luncheons program in Arab schools, so that the food standards of the whole country are being raised.

1. Lunches to 30,000 Children. The Hadassah luncheons system provides daily hot luncheons to 30,000 children in kindergartens, ele- mentary and secondary schools, clubs, day camps and child-caring insti- tutions. The number who receive lunches at present is three times more than before the war. The cost of the meal is 32 mils (13 cents). The children are asked to pay according to their means so that they do not regard themselves as objects of charity. 2. The Teaching of Nutrition and Domestic Science. The children themselves, under trained adult supervision, prepare and serve the lunches for teachers and pupils. This work is part of their course in nutrition which is part of the school curriculum. Complete courses in domestic science for eighth-grade pupils were begun in 1941 and are now an integral part of the school curriculum. 3. Education of the Public. Periodic public exhibits and demon- strations of seasonal foods and their uses are held in a number of schools throughout the country. Through radio broadcasts and food columns in the press, the whole country is informed of available foodstuffs and ways of preparing nourishing, tasty meals at minimum prices.

RECREATION PROGRAM Recognizing that the well-being of the child depends on more than its physical care, Hadassah has developed a recreation program that 20 includes playgrounds, kindergartens, day camps, summer camps and clubs.

1. 33 Playgrounds. The program was begun in 1925 with a fund provided by the late Mrs. Bertha Guggenheimer of Lynchburg, Va., who was interested in establishing play areas for both Arab and Jewish children to help develop wholesome inter-group relations and attitudes. The first playground was opened in Jerusalem. Today there are 33 playgrounds in cities, towns and villages in every part of the country. Recreation leaders trained by the Hadassah Recreation Committee are in charge of each playground.

2. Kindergartens. Children for kindergartens in Jerusalem and rural districts are recommended by either social workers or the Soldier's Welfare Committee, or come from needy families in the neighborhood. Supervised play and simple crafts, a daily hot meal, and the provision of clothing to those who need it are a part of the kindergarten program.

3. Evening Clubs. For children who have outgrown the playground stage, there are evening clubs in large cities. Typical of these new clubs is one in Haifa, less than a year old, which offers recreational, social and educational facilities for 12 to 14 year olds.

4. Recreation Center. Plans are under way to establish a recrea- tion center in Jerusalem, to be used for inter-group youth celebrations, sports and other recreational activities, as well as for the training of recreation leaders. It will include sports grounds, swimming pools, gymnasiums, club and library facilities, rooms for handicrafts and pre- vocational training, for lectures and debates, and dormitories for the leaders.

5. Arts and Crafts. In addition to organized play and sport, the playground program provides for the teaching of arts and crafts, which help develop the talents and skills of the children. The children are encouraged to save materials that would ordinarily be discarded, and from these they fashion all kinds of household articles. The mending of shoes and household furnishings have become a popular occupation, providing excellent pre-vocation training, especially for underprivileged children. Periodically the children hold exhibits of their work, selling the articles for the further improvement of the playgrounds.

21 6. Summer Day Camps. Summer day camps, which now number more than 300 in towns and rural areas, provide recreational facilities and daily meals to approximately 10,000 children. These camps are conducted by the Central Feeding Committee of the Vaad Leumi and Hadassah, in cooperation with local groups.

'four weeks־to־Regular Summer Camps. Sites for the regular two .7 summer camps are usually on the seashore, and in selecting children for these camps attention is paid to those who are physically under par. The children themselves help build tlie camp. They learn how to pitch tents, to cook over firewood and in general to lead a cooperative outdoor life of fun and sport.

VOCATIONAL EDUCATION

Alert to the needs of the developing Jewish National Home in Palestine—among them ways and means of counterbalancing the absence of a government compulsory school attendance law, and of improved facilities for training young people to a higher standard of general knowl- edge and craftsmanship—Hadassah entered the field of vocational edu- cation in 1941 under the banner of the Louis D. Brandeis Vocational Center. Several trade high schools had already been established for boys. Although there were several vocational schools for girls, none of them was of secondary school level. Hadassah undertook to make good this deficiency and established the Alice L. Seligsberg* Vocational High School for Girls in Jerusalem. Its purpose was three-fold. One was to provide an inducement to parents of small means to keep their daughters in school instead of allowing them to enter the market of un- skilled workers at a young age; another was to provide the developing Jewish National Home with a corps of better educated and better trained young women; and the third was to elevate the status of vocational vis-a-vis general education as part of the general emphasis on the dignity of labor in the Jewish National Home. With its fine staff of trade and academic teachers, the Alice L. Seligsberg Vocational High School is now in its fourth year and has an enrollment of 250 pupils in three departments—clerical (bookkeeping, stenography and typewriting), dressmaking and tailoring, cooking and

* Miss Seligsberg was an American leader and pioneer in the social service field.

22 catering. When the first class graduates in June 1946, the 50 graduates will be prepared for work in offices, the needle trades, restaurants, ho- tels, hospital kitchens and this not as unskilled apprentices but as well- equipped, productive personnel. As has so often been the case, Hadassah's move in a given direction has been a sign and a stimulus for the Jewish community. As a result of Hadassah's opening in Jerusalem of the first vocational high school for girls, one is to be established in Haifa and another in Tel Aviv. Together these schools, making available practical vocational education, will keep hundreds of girls in school long enough to give them produc- tive capacities and keep them from untutored blind-alley pursuits which were their lot in the past. Following on the establishment of the school, Hadassah turned its attention to other aspects of the vocational and pre-vocational fields. Together with the Education Department of the Yaad Leumi (National Jewish Council) the Jewish Agency and the Histadruth (the Labor Organization of Palestine), it set out to improve standards of manual training of boys. There was a program, although insufficient, in ele- mentary schools. Three years ago Hadassah and the Yaad Leumi set up a large central workshop in Jerusalem, to serve in some 10 schools, the workshop giving training in carpentry, metal work, leather work and other manual skills to pupils of the seventh and eighth grades. The idea has proved so successful that plans are under way for its extension and duplication in other parts of the country. A second pre-vocational project is the Julian W. Mack* School and Workshops, jointly sponsored by Hadassah and the American Fund for Palestinian Institutions. It offers a combination of ungraded elemen- tary education and workshop training in such skills as bookbinding, carpentry, sewing, embroidering, pottery and gardening. It enrolls a group of 150 underprivileged boys and girls, who would otherwise be on the streets earning a few pennies to supplement the slim family income. The prospect of at least some degree of skill, and therefore better earning power, is an inducement to the parents, most of them of the Oriental communities, to leave the young children in school. Their attendance also makes it possible for Hadassah to keep the children under the surveillance and care of its School Hygiene Department. Turning its attention to the needs of working youth, including ap- prentices, Hadassah mobilized various forces in the community to im-

* Judge Julian W. Mack was the noted American Jurist. The school is headed by Deborah Kallen, a trained American educator.

23 prove and extend continuation schools and classes and bring about improvement in conditions of apprenticeship. It entered into partner- ship with the Organization of Working Youth which had already estab- lished a continuation school for boys in Jerusalem and reorganized and improved that valuable instrument of training. As now organized, the Committee on Continuation Education has as its program: 1. To provide continuation, general and vocational schooling for working youth. 2. To bring about agreements with employers that will include such conditions as release for stipulated hours of young em- ployees for study purposes, the proper vocational follow-up of the boys at work, etc. 3. To provide adequate vocational guidance. In addition special workshops, such as fine mechanics, printing, upholstery have been set up in the Brandeis Centre. In order to provide continuation education for working girls, en- gaged mostly in domestic service or as apprentices to dressmakers, Hadassah entered into partnership with another women's Zionist or- ganization, WIZO, and opened evening classes in the Alice L. Seligsberg School. Here the girls proceed with their general education and ac- quire greater skill and more basic knowledge in sewing and cooking, to elevate them from the unskilled to at least the semi-skilled class. Their evening work and social clubs have proved, in addition, valuable sub- stitutes for evenings when idleness and possibly unsatisfying home environment might have exerted bad influence. As a fundamental part of its Brandeis Vocational Center, Hadassah established a Vocational Guidance Bureau. This bureau is developing vocational aptitude tests suitable to Palestine and is testing all pupils in Jewish elementary schools in Jerusalem. In addition to giving guidance to pupils and parents generally as to the most suitable choice of vocation, it has as one of its primary tasks to find the pupils best fitted for the Alice L. Seligsberg School and other Hadassah vocational activities described above. An illustration of the already recognized value of the Guidance Clinic is the fact that the authorities have requested this bureau to carry out the testing of apti- tudes of demobilized service men in preparation for their readjustment to civilian life. 24 In the Brandeis Yocational Center as in all its work Hadassah is animated by its purpose to make conditions in the Jewish National Home such as not only to improve the lot of those Jews already there, but also to create conditions that will increase the country's absorptive capacity. YOUTH ALIYAH One of the greatest humanitarian tasks with which Hadassah has been associated is the rescue of Jewish children and youth from Europe, their transfer to Palestine, and their physical, mental and spiritual rehabilitation in the Jewish National Home. This movement, known as Youth Aliyah, has saved almost 17,000 young people since it began, to function twelve years ago. Since 1935, Hadassah has been the of- ficial organ in the United States of America for collecting the funds required for Youth Aliyah, and was able to rally around itself Zionists and non-Zionists, Jews and non-Jews for this impressive and inspiring modern "Children's Crusade." Hadassah has collected and sent to Palestine $6,000,000, the major portion of funds needed for the mainte- nance and education of Youth Aliyah wards in the last ten years. Other women's Zionist organizations of the world have also been iden- tified with this project. When Hitler rose to power in Germany, almost the first defensive step taken by the Jews was the organization of their youth groups into one federation. Out of this union grew the Youth Aliyah movement, its central idea the migration of Jewish youth out of the choking at- mosphere of Nazi hatred and discrimination. Their destination was Palestine, where a new, constructive life awaited them in the land where the Jews, on the basis of the Balfour Declaration and the Mandate, were building a national home, were working out new social experi- ments, were molding a new destiny "as of right and not on sufferance." Soon after the idea was conceived there was called to put it into effect that outstanding American Jewess, the late Henrietta Szold, then living in Palestine, who undertook the task and set the pattern which Youth Aliyah was to follow. Both for educational reasons and in con- sonance with the new social outlook characteristic of Jewish Palestine, Youth Aliyah wards were placed under a correlated work-study program in the agricultural settlements and in institutions. The success of the training program was in no small measure due to the eagerness of the Jewish community in Palestine to receive the adolescents, scorned and persecuted by the Nazis, to assure their social, psychic and physical rehabilitation. 25 The ]first group of adolescents aged 15 to 17 were brought from Germany to Palestine in February 1934, after a preliminary testing and training period to prove whether they were adaptable to group living. Placed in Ain Harod, one of the largest cooperative settle- ments, they underwent two years of training, with the day divided between four hours of study and four hours of practical work. Their studies included Hebrew, Jewish history, Palestine geography, and studies basic to farming. Most of the group elected a third year as full time apprentices before starting out on their own. Some 75 per cent of the group remained on the soil and the rest found their way into other occupations. The patterns worked out for this first group were constantly im- proved upon and applied successfully to group after group. As the ferocity of the Nazi persecutions increased, as the poison spread through Europe, the tempo and extent of youth immigration increased. Limited at first to children from Germany, it later attempted to meet the frantic appeals for help from parents and children in other countries. The number of reception areas in the Jewish settlements were rapidly expanded. The settlements vied with each other to pro• vide housing and other requisites. The initial age limitation of 15-17 had to be revised and younger children, ranging in age from two years upward, were accepted, with the necessary revision and adaptation of the educational system. Even after the outbreak of war the rescue work was not interrupted. Despite enormous difficulties and dangers, children continued to be brought to Palestine. YOUTH ALIYAH WARDS ACCEPTED 1934 — 1945 1934 313 1934-1935 241 1935-1936 759 1936-1937 461 1937-1938 686 1938-1939 2,552 1939-1940 976 1940-1941 1,486 1941-1942 605 1942-1943 2,018 1943-1944 2,035 1944-1945 4,047 26 ARRIVALS AND ADMISSIONS OF YOUTH ALIYAH WARDS ACCORDING TO PLACE OF ORIGIN

1934 — 1945

Place of Origin Youth Aliyah Wards Germany 4,891 Austria 1,631 Poland 1,540 Turkey 1,045 Rumania 1,034 Czechoslovakia 884 Transdniestria 731 Bulgaria 457 Hungary 395 Yemen 376 Greece 220 Syria 214 Italy 151 Yugoslavia 108 France 103 Belgium 99 Iraq 73 Western Europe 68 Palestine 46 Holland 29 Tangiers 22 Lybia 19 Spain 19 Portugal 13 Switzerland 11 Lithuania 8 Eygpt 6 Tripoli 5 Aden 4 Bukharia 3 Iran 3 Luxemburg 3 Latvia 2

27 Algiers 1 Cuba 1 Morocco 1

14,216 Special Trade Course 14 Palestine Youth Groups 1,077 Additional Dependents accepted in Palestine 872

16,179

The contrast between the tens of thousands of children who met their untimely end or who spent tortured years in concentration camps and those who had the good fortune to reach their new homes in Pales- tine, is immeasurably impressive and moving. In addition to the fundamental fact that the children and youth are made to feel that they have come "home," their moral and psychic re- habilitation is assured by the fact that they are treated as individuals. Where children are found unsuited for agricultural life or when they manifest special aptitudes in other directions, special provision is made for their training. The guiding principle of Miss Szold's service to Youth Aliyah was her determination to treat each child as an individual and give him the best development that Palestine could offer. The remarkable success of the Youth Aliyah program may also be read in the story of its graduates. Seventy-five percent have remained in agriculture. The graduating groups have consistently sought assign- ments that were difficult and of a pioneering nature, extending the frontiers in undeveloped parts of Palestine and adding to the country's absorptive capacities and opportunities. For example, the Youth Aliyah graduates who settled on the shores of the Dead Sea where they had to wash the salt-impregnated soil to make it a productive truck garden, is a case in point. The Youth Aliyah graduates who went into the British army as volunteers are even in excess of the high percentage of the Jewish population as a whole which enlisted. A group of these Youth Aliyah soldiers who went forward in advance of the British Army at El Alamein and who met their death, and the many other acts of heroism and self-sacrifice in the history of these young people illustrate

28 the tremendous vitality of these young people—the rejected human material of Nazi Europe transformed into the constructive and creative citizens of Palestine. Only in the Jewish National Home could these results have been achieved. Henrietta Szold repeatedly stated that had it not been for the background of the Jewish settlements on the land, for the spirit of national solidarity, for the limitless love and care given these children by the pioneers of the national home, the happy and complete rehabilita- tion of the survivors of the holocaust, could never have been achieved. It is the firm and unanimous conviction of Hadassah's far-flung members, and of tens of thousands* who second Hadassah's efforts by the support of Youth Aliyah, that the answer to the salvation of the remaining Jewish children and youth of Europe is in Palestine. The pattern has been drawn, the ground has been broken, the foundation set firm and deep for the speedy, healthy, productive rescue and rehabilitation of the pitifully small remnant of the Jewish child population of Europe. As the American sponsors of the movement that has achieved much and can achieve much more, Hadassah earnestly sets before itself and the world the completion of the task begun.

THE JEWISH NATIONAL FUND

Reclamation of the soil of Palestine as the possession of the Jewish people is basic to the concept of Palestine as the Jewish National Home. No separation is possible between the redemption of a people and the redemption of the land. Based on the pledge of the Balfour Declara- tion and the Mandate, the Jews of the world have poured huge sums into the purchase of land in Palestine, the draining of swamps, the drilling of water and the establishment of thriving agricultural settle- ments in areas that for centuries were regarded as wasteland. Hadassah has taken part in the program of land redemption and reforestation since 1922, reclaiming large tracts in the Haifa Bay area,

* On the Advisory Committee of The National Youth Aliyah Committee of Hadassah are Mrs. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Mrs. Dorothy Canfield Fisher, Eddie Cantor, Mrs. Harold Milligan, Henry Monsky, Mrs. Maurice T. Moore, Clarence E. Pickett, Lewis L. Strauss, Oswald Garrison Villard, Senator Robert F. Wagner, George L. Warren, Dr. Stephen S. Wise. Children to Palestine, a Christian-Jewish committee for the rescue of Jewish refugee children and their rehabilitation in Palestine works with Hadassah for Youth Aliyah. Its honorary chairman is Senator Leverett Saltonstall.

29 in Upper Galilee and other parts of Palestine. During the past year Hadassah's special project was the redemption of a tract of land in honor of Dr. Chaim Weizmann's seventieth birthday. Its current project is to secure land for a Soldiers Village for returning Palestinian fighting men and women. Tens of thousands of immigrants have been settled on the land re- deemed by the Jewish National Fund, and through their labor and the application of scientific methods of cultivation have increased the agricultural production of the country for the benefit of all inhabitants.

JUNIOR HADASSAH

Junior Hadassah, organized in 1920, decided from the outset that .־it would undertake such projects in Palestine as would further the edu cation and training of young people in that country. Its special respon- sibility is the Children's Village of Meier Shfeyah in Samaria, a com- plete social community of 120 boys and girls. Since 1925 more than 400 young people have been graduated from the home-school and taken their places in the industrial and agricultural life of Palestine. Meier Shfeyah accepts underprivileged children recommended by the Social Service Department of the Vaad Leumi. The village is an outstanding example of a modern, progressive educational community. The combination of study with actual exper- ience, the wide latitude given the children to develop interests that con- form to their inclinations or talents, the development of a sense of re- sponsibility, and activities in typical occupations of the country, are a splendid preparation for continued individual growth and for intelligent participation in the complex social and economic life of a modern coun- try. Junior Hadassah also participates in the support of the Henrietta Szold-Hadassah School of Nursing, in the Youth Aliyah movement and in the Jewish National Fund.

CONCLUSION

. The purpose, the scope and the integration of Hadassah's work into the life of Palestine, has been described in the preceding pages. That Hadassah has been able to mobilize the largest single force of American Jewish women, and that it has secured increasing support for

30 its manifold projects from a wide American public sympathetic to Zion- ist aims, are due to its avowed Zionist objective—the upbuilding of Palestine as a democratic Jewish Commonwealth. That objective has always been clearly and publicly stated. Every member on joining Hadassah subscribes to it. Every contributor knows that his donation helps strengthen the Jewish community in Palestine and is concrete support of the aim to realize the full implementation of the Balfour Declaration and the Mandate. In initiating and extending the medical and public health program that has safeguarded the health of a Jewish community enlarged by more than 700% between the two wars, Hadassah has helped create the conditions that enable Palestine to absorb still larger numbers of immigrants, and has laid the ground-work for the health of future generations. Hadassah through the Youth Aliyah program has played the largest part in rescuing close to 17,000 children from tyranny and hatred and given Palestine energetic young minds and hands to participate in its upbuilding. The Jewish National Fund, Hadassah's role in reclaiming the soil of Palestine in the name of the Jewish people, is helping to build the foundation of a Jewish National Home—land for Jewish settlement, cultivation and production. Faith in the pledge of the Balfour Declaration and the Mandate stimulated the development of these activities as part of all Jewish endeavors in Palestine, endeavors directed to enable the country's ab- sorption of large scale immigration. There is no more compelling evidence of the will to self-reliance on the part of the Jewish community of Palestine than its eagerness to participate to its fullest capacity in all of the upbuilding efforts. This is still the pioneering period in the tremendous task of transforming Palestine, neglected for centuries, into a modern, thriving land. Yet even at this stage the Jewish community of Palestine is rapidly extend- ing its participation and initiating its own enterprises on an increasingly large scale. In the case of Hadassah, the Jewish community entered into partnership with it almost from the first years of its work, and in the course of time has taken over and developed many of the institu- tions and services begun by Hadassah. In assuming increasing re- sponsibility for health services the Jewish community is enabling

31 Hadassah to branch out into wider fields of medical work, which in time, too, will become part of the community's own. This is a fundamental trend and augurs well for the future develop- ment of Palestine, provided the Jews are given the political conditions to make that development possible. In presenting this report Hadassah's purpose is not to show the extent and quality of its work as an organization, but to indicate how that work has aided Palestine in its growth and modernization since Great Britain and the nations of the world made their pledge to the Jewish people in the Balfour Declaration and the Mandate. Based on this solemn covenant and confident that the civilized world, having fought a war for justice and right, will insist that that covenant be car- ried out to end the homelessness of the Jewish people, the Jewish women of America represented by Hadassah will continue their unremitting efforts to help recreate Palestine, the Jewish National Home as a democratic Jewish Commonwealth. COMPARATIVE TABLE EXPENDITURES FOR HEALTH WORK IN PALEST Total Gov't Dept. % for Health Jewish Gov't Grant Taxes Taxes Year Gov't of Health Out of Total Gov't Expenditure for Jewish Jews non-Jews Expenditure Expenditure Expenditure For Health Health Work LP LP LP LP LP 1921-2 1,881,108 142,931 7.6 143,894 1922-3 1,837,173 114,147 6.2 151,278 1923-4 1,633,277 91,355 5.5 93,816 1924-5 1,806,660 82,329 4.6 126,307 1925-6 2,040,332 83,276 4.1 146,701 1926-7 2,070,479 89,384 4.3 172,550 1927 (9 mos) 1,944,397 73,858 3.8 170,127 1928 3,381,993 98,581 2.9 155,297 1929 2,140,032 101,864 4.8 200.000 2,000 1930 2,536,505 105,481 4.2 175,000 1931 2,374,866 105,918 4.5 180,377 OS 1932-3 2,516,394 111,052 4.4 168,164 6,700 CO 1933-4 2,704,856 135,838 5.0 219,500 4,245 1934-5 3,230,010 166,311 5.1 360,000 22,144 1935-6 4,236,202 194,632 4.6 350,000 10,344 1936-7 (Est.) 6,210,447 242,831 3.9 325,281 15,633 1937-8 " 5,077,447 215,223 4.2 343,047 15,453 1938-9 " 5,445,760 245.646 4.5 1939-40 " 6,400,738 243,016 3.9 1940-1 " 8,857,584 265,151 3.0 1942-3 " 10,253,300 442,275 4.3 886,881 17,219 6,200,000 1,900,000 1943-4 " 14,819,250 480,710 3.2 1,600.000 27,919 8,900,000 2,200,000 Sources 1. Jewish Agency Memo to Mandates Commission H.M. Gov't Reports to Mandates Commission Evidence prepared for Palestine Commission of Inquiry by S. Hoofien, pub. in Palestine and Near East Economic Magazine, March 20, 1930 3. U.S. Bulletin TB 126 on Health Conditions in Palestine & Transjordan—December 1944